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Mastering the creative brief

Mastering the creative brief

You’re juggling dozens of priorities and under the gun to get a new marketing campaign under way. Do you really have time to write a creative brief? Avoid the temptation to skip it! Why write a creative brief? Creative briefs help keep projects running smoothly and prevent misunderstandings and project delays by:

Connecting objectives with creative strategies

Building team consensus

Aligning expectations

Defining clear, measurable goals

What’s included in a creative brief? Key elements of the creative brief can include:

Background information on the company, product, or service

Insight into the target audience

Brand attributes, promise, and mission

Competitive landscape

Business objectives

Compelling offer

Call to action

Metrics for measuring success

Supporting data

Functional specifications (if applicable)

Approval process

Timelines

Budget

Steps to take when writing a creative brief Here’s a quick list of dos and don’ts for writing a creative brief.

Do:

Include all stakeholders. Gain input from all of the stakeholders, including those who’ll have final say over the project approval. Having buy-in from everyone up front will help ensure smooth sailing ahead!

Keep it short. People have a tendency to throw in everything but the kitchen sink when they write a creative brief. It’s better to be discriminating in identifying the most critical points to communicate. A succinct, well written brief helps the creative team stay focused.

Have a conversation. A creative brief shouldn’t be written in a vacuum. It should be based on thought-provoking discussion with key contributors to ensure everyone is in agreement with key goals and messaging.

Use insights to inspire. Think about the motivating insights that drive the audience. Such nuggets of data are precious to your creative team—helping to inspire original ideas.

Don’t:

Use a one-size-fits-all approach. Often creative teams use different types of creative briefs. Those for large projects cover overarching messaging and long-term objectives while rapid-response briefs are used for smaller projects.

Use meaningless descriptions. Leave out rote adjectives (a.k.a. innovative, state-of-the-art, etc, etc.) to describe the offering. Tell the creative team in plain language what really sets you apart. Having the real facts will help them develop a compelling message.

Provide just basic demographics. Help the creative team really “get” who the audience is and what motivates them. Paint a more well rounded picture of who the target is. For example, if your audience is young affluent mothers, what are their key concerns? Where do they spend their time and money? What do they think of your brand today? What common objections might they have to your product/service and how can you overcome them?

Focus just on the product/service features. Studies show that people make buying decisions based on their emotional response to a product or brand. Think about the driving factors that lead a client to crave your offering.

Use generic/boilerplate descriptions. If there's nothing unique or distinctive about the creative brief, the resulting creative won't be either.

Let it get in the way of the project timeline. Take the time to develop a creative brief, but be cautious about doing so in a timely manner.